[1] David (after consulting the captain of each army division): If you agree, and if the Eternal One our God requires, then let us request the company of our relatives throughout Israel-including the priests and Levites who are among the other eleven tribes in their cities with pasture lands. [3] Let us take the covenant chest of our God from its exile in Kiriath-jearim and return it to our presence, making it our focus, since we did not keep it with us during Saul's reign. [4] Everyone agreed with David that this was right: the chest of the covenant should be among the people. [5] So David assembled Israel, from the Shihor of Egypt to the entrance of Hamath in Aram, to take the covenant chest of God from Kiriath-jearim. [6] Everyone went up to Baalah (also known as Kiriath-jearim) in Judah to take the covenant chest of God where the Eternal sits between the winged heavenly creatures and His name is called. [7] They carried the covenant chest of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab; Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. [8] David and all Israel rejoiced with all their might with songs, lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets as a celebration before God. [9] When they arrived at the threshing floor of Chidon, the oxen tripped, nearly tipping the covenant chest off the cart, so Uzza reached out to steady it. [10] The Eternal was enraged at Uzza because he touched the chest and defiled its sanctity, ignoring God's instructions never to touch it, so He killed the man in His presence. [11] David was angry at the Eternal's retribution against Uzza, so the king named that place Perez-uzza, meaning "broken Uzza," as it still is called today. [12] David feared God and wondered, "How can I bring the covenant chest of God, something with such awesome power, home with me?" [13] Instead of bringing it to the city of David, he took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, who was from Gath Rammon (a Levitical city). [14] There the covenant chest of God remained three months before David moved it to Jerusalem, and the Eternal blessed Obed-edom's family in everything.
